Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread Muffins

What's better than Irish soda bread at Saint Patrick's Day time?  Nothing, I say.  Some might claim that corned beef and cabbage is better, but ... considering that when my mom made it this year, and it was tough, and then Daisy pooped under the table while we ate, I would have to say that even my carnivorous family would agree that soda bread is better.

This year I changed things up a bit and tried a new recipe instead of our tried-and-true recipe.  I got the idea of checking out Skinny Taste to see if she had any great ideas on how to make it a healthier food, and stumbled across these little guys: whole wheat Irish soda bread muffins!  The muffin idea is excellent: portion control right there.  And the whole wheat is added to equal amounts of all purpose flour so they don't get dense.

Differently from my other recipe, these have butter (which seems strange since I was going for skinny muffins - but don't worry, there is only 3 tablespoons in the 12 muffins), and baking powder in addition to baking soda.  They do still, however, come out of the oven tasting like a delicious Irish soda bread (and they puff up beautifully!).  They were such a hit, I ended up making 2 batches over Saint Patrick's day weekend.  Easy, quick, and a delicious alternative to making one big loaf of soda bread!

Recipe:

whole wheat Irish soda bread muffins
from Skinny Taste
makes 12 muffins

serving size: 1 muffin
Points+: 4 points
calories: 147.8
fat: 3.7 g

Ingredients:
baking spray
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3 tablespoons chilled butter
1 cup 1% buttermilk
3 tablespoons honey or agave
1 large egg, beaten
3 ounces raisins (about 2/3 cup)

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray muffin tin with baking spray.

2) In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt).  Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

3) In a small bowl, stir together buttermilk, honey or agave, and egg until blended.  Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir to combine.  Stir in raisins.

4) Spoon batter into prepared pan.  Bake 20 - 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of one muffin comes out clean.

5) Remove tin and cool on a wire rack for about 5 minutes before muffins from tin; finish cooling on rack.  Serve warm or cool completely and store muffins in an airtight in an airtight container or ziplock bags at room temperature.